


Practice rooms and completely unintentional dates

by LaparaLaela



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Aren't I just the pinnacle of creativity?, Cello, First Meetings, It's so short I'm so sorry, M/M, One Shot, Piano, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 04:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3882949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaparaLaela/pseuds/LaparaLaela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: 'I was staying after school at the library for a project when I heard music from the music room and I peaked in and shit you are really musically talented don't stop I want to hear more' au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice rooms and completely unintentional dates

You really were intending to study. Honest! You were going to sit in this library and do your work until it was all finished, because that’s what a good student would do. And you’re totally a good student. 100% good student. Yeah.

But that’s not what you’re doing. Instead you’ve been sitting against the wall, with your ear towards the practice room, and good lord, the sounds that are coming out of it are beautiful. 

There’s music, yes, and the music is actually really good. You should get whoever’s in there to do a duet with you sometime because cello and piano duets are probably the best thing to ever exist in the history of time.

But mostly what interests you are the short bursts of angry mumbling (or not so much mumbling, but angry screaming at his cello.). The person in there is interesting, and his insults towards his instrument of choice are probably some of the most creative that you’ve ever heard. You really want to meet him.

The point is that you definitely did not come to the library today with the intent of listening in on this guy because you’re pretty sure it isn’t stalking if you come across them by accident. Which you totally did. Boy, you hope that’s right or else you might as well take the title of “biggest creep on campus” right here and now.

So what if this may or may not be the eighth time that you’ve accidentally listened to him, or that you might think he’s just a little attractive. You briefly wonder if he likes coffee, then abruptly crash that train of thought into the ground. You’re not going to get to know him and that’s final.

But you already know his music. The song he’s playing right now seems to be one of his favorites, or maybe just one of his more difficult pieces. The point is that he’s played it a lot and it has started to grow on you. You’ve even tried to imitate it on your keyboard back in your dorm, but to no avail. Google attempts to find the name of it have proven fruitless as well. (It turns out that typing in “that one cello song that goes mmmm mmmm mm mmmm mmm mmm mmm” doesn’t work very well.)

You have no intentions to ask him the name of the song when he comes out.

In the mean-time you just sit against the wall next to the door, and listen to his music. You try to study but in all honesty, you don’t want to miss even a moment of the sound that leaks out of that supposedly sound-proof room.

When he stops playing his music, you hurriedly raise the long forgotten book from your lap to your face. Act cool John, act cool. You can do this. Your roommate is practically the self proclaimed GOD of cool. Surely enough pretend coolness has rubbed off on you to be able to pretend that you’ve just chosen this particular place to definitely study.

You don’t look up from your book, so all you see is a pair of feet in front of you, unmoving. 

You hear a sigh, and then, “Look, I’m not an idiot. You’re obviously not choosing this place to study out of pure unadulterated comfort, given that the linoleum you’re sitting on looks like it hasn’t been swept in months by anything but your unfortunate ass, so if you could explain to me exactly why you’ve decided to park yourself right outside my practice room every god-damned day, that would be wonderful.”

Then you look up. His face is sort of lumpy and squashed. He’s scowling, and judging by the lines in his skin, you’d guess that’s a pretty common occurrence.

But you were never really interested in how people look. It has never been even a factor at all. The only factors here is that this is that you’re finally seeing the face of a person you feel you already know.

“Oh, hey there!” You look around yourself and grin sheepishly for a moment. “Welp! You caught me dude. I was totally stalking you. You should probably call campus security.” You stand up and surreptitiously wipe your palm on your jeans before holding it out to the other to shake. “I’m John. Don’t actually call campus security, because then I’d never know what that song’s called!”

He looks at you, head cocked slightly to the side, before taking your hand briefly. Oh swoon! “Karkat. It’s called Flightless. I kind of suck at playing it, because the universe decided that making me pretty much incapable at an instrument I happen to love was the best joke ever, and I can’t even play the whole thing since there’s a fuckton of other instruments in it, but it’s still pretty much my favorite song.”

It clicks in your head why the song sounds so familiar. You remember playing the piano part of it for a recital back in… middle school you think? Wow, that was a long time ago. “Dude, I totally have sheet music for that somewhere in my files. We should play together some time.” Hell yes. This is perfect. It’s almost like your life is a story where the overarching theme meant that this was bound to happen.

It takes him a moment to respond, and you stand there, definitely not fidgeting, because that’s a thing that only babies do and you are anything but a baby. Finally, he answers. “Sure. Yeah, that actually sounds like it might be fun. I mean, something bad is bound to happen and fate will probably have it that you’re a serial killer or something considering my luck and your dubious history of stalking, but sure. I have class in about 10 minutes, but maybe after that we could get together somewhere and make more of this screeching noise that perfectly captures the essence of my life.”

You are practically jumping up and down from glee. On the inside of course, because you are a serious and hardworking college student. Does this qualify as a date? You’re pretty sure this qualifies as a date.

Grinning, you give him an answer, “Hell yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! This is my first fic, so critical commentary is welcomed! I know that this isn't exactly the most original fic idea out there, but I'm Johnkat trash so I thought I should start with something I'm comfortable with and then work my way up to more challenging stuff. I also liked the idea of JOHN being the one to listen in rather than Karkat because I know that that would be the direction most would take this prompt in.
> 
> The song he's mentioning by the way is Flightless by Case and it appears in Featherbent, which if you haven't read it, is something you need to go do right now. Why are you reading my dumb fanfic if you haven't read Featherbent? Shame on you. Here's where you can listen to the song: http://featherbent.com/post/46320938700/flightless-featherbent-case-so-klones
> 
> Also btw the "oh man physical appearance doesn't mean much to me" was supposed to hint at John being ace but I'm terrible at writing so it probably came off as aloof "oh im not THAT shallow" snobbishness.


End file.
